Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar Theses, Dissertations and Capstones 1-1-2007 From Man to Meteor: Nineteenth Century American Writers and the Figure of John Brown Amanda Benigni
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://mds.marshall.edu/etd Part of the American Literature Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Benigni, Amanda, "From Man to Meteor: Nineteenth Century American Writers and the Figure of John Brown" (2007). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. Paper 465. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations and Capstones by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. From Man to Meteor Nineteenth Century American Writers and the Figure of John Brown Thesis submitted to the Graduate College of Marshall University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts In English By Amanda Benigni Dr. Katharine Rodier, Ph.D., Committee Chairperson Dr. Mary Moore, Ph.D. Dr. Christopher Green, Ph.D. Marshall University August 2007 Abstract On November 2, 1859, John Brown laid siege to the Federal Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, then Virginia, in an effort to seize weaponry which he planned to employ in a full scale slave insurrection. From the moment he entered the public eye during his brief trial and execution, John Brown and his legacy were figured and refigured by prominent writers and thinkers of the time. The result of this refiguring was an image under constant metamorphosis.